When playing TF2 the game looks great, however, When I look around it appears that some of the graphics "flicker" not to a point where it is distorted have you. Basically on the walls and such it just appears that they well kind of flicker a little bit, I want to say tear kind of but it is not that serious. My frame rate is still extremely solid.

I had the same problem with an 8800 GTX that I just replaced, now though, sometimes all games freeze up. When doing this sometimes the game locks and makes the same sound that was currently going over and over again which makes me have to reset the comp.

I'm running "recommended settings" as far as the AA model detail and such are concered...also I'm running @ 1920 by 1080 widescreen

TF2= team fortress 2 i assume? if so, thats actually a game i dont play. The flickering can be a couple things, in the video options, look to see if theres a vsync option and enable it if its there. Another thing is using a dvi-vga adapter, hdmi or dvi all the way would be preferred over using an adapter anywhere. Lastly, try to find some other players and see if its the same thing on their rig. What im getting at there is it may be a glitch on valve's end that needs a patch/update.

Concerning freezing up,have you checked your video temps? The stock coolers on the 8800 and 9800 are less than desirable, i had to replace mine with the first week. How long does it take to lock up and loop the audio?

If you dont already have it, download the latest nvidia drivers and download nvidia ntune. ntune can give the gpu temps and if set right, it can log your temps in intervals to see where its at when you crash.

Figured I'd post back. After putting back in the 8800 GTX card I have less problems, and no crash problems. My guess, (and I've seen others with similar experiences) is there simply is not enough memory on the 9800 GTX 512. It's a pretty good card, but it simply does not have enough umph on the memory side.

Advice: if you are getting a 9800GTX make sure and get the 1GB version